“We gave quite a professional presentation to bring everyone up to speed and parents of all ages as well as residents and businesses packed it out - we could have done with a slightly bigger room actually.

“All the councillors were pretty much cornered by the community after the meeting asking why they are letting this happen.

“We don’t know what is happening yet, but we got together everyone’s opinions from the community, and we will now collate them into a list and feed back.

“At the end of October there will be a formal meeting which the council has organised with the head teacher and they will present their own options then.

“People have got to start thinking about this now before the drop in sessions - we all have six weeks now to think about it.

“We also want to inform people that this is not just relating to parents, it is the whole community.

“We also want to stress the formal channel of communication is through the parent council, so we would encourage anyone with concerns to come straight to us.”

Independent councillor Xander McDade, who represents the Highland region at Perth and Kinross Council, said: “Following Sunday’s public meeting, where the Conservative-led administration and the SNP both said they opposed closure of Pitlochry High School, I have again called on the convener of the lifelong learning committee to rule out closure as one of the options to be consulted on.

Cllr Xander McDade, independent for Highland ward

“Given the cross-party consensus against closure it seems crazy to even consider putting it on the table as an option for consultation.

“Rather than wasting everyone’s time with an option that has no political support, it would seem more sensible to rule it out formally at the start.

“Removing the closure option would reduce unnecessary stress from staff, parents, pupils and the community – allowing us to focus on further improving our excellent school instead.”

Cllr McDade, who himself attended Pitlochry High School as a child, continued: “I’m sure my colleagues on the lifelong learning executive subcommittee would be happy to hold a special meeting to agree ruling out the closure option if that is what’s required.

“It would be a great show of bipartisanship, which is sorely lacking in Perth and Kinross Council at the moment.”

The meeting was also attended by his fellow Highland ward councillors Mike Williamson (SNP) and John Duff (Conservative), as well as education secretary John Swinney MSP and Pete Wishart MP.

Cllr McDade has now written to the council’s convener of lifelong learning Cllr Caroline Shiers, asking for the council’s position on Pitlochry High School to be clarified.

He also pointed out in his letter that all political parties are opposed to the school’s closure, and asked if the school could be removed entirely from the estates review.

A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council said: "The council is fully committed to seeing education provision in Highland Perthshire enhanced, not diminished.

"The school estate review process has allowed the council to engage with communities across Perth and Kinross.

"Meetings with the parent councils of schools in phase two will take place to provide an update on the process and to ensure they are kept fully informed."

Cllr Caroline Shiers, the council's lifelong learning convener, added: "I believe that what we are delivering as part of the school estate review will be local schools which really do offer children and young people the very best opportunities across Perth and Kinross.

"It is important that we continue to take a consistent approach to this important work.

"That means starting from a point of there being a presumption against closure of rural schools in every case, consider all possible options and ruling out at the earliest opportunity any options that are not viable."